The basic and most common stain used in histology is actually a combination of two stains, hematoxylin and eosin (H&E).

The charge of the tissue constituents, proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, etc, determine which stain will preferentially bind.

• Basic stain (e.g. hematoxylin) contains positive charges (cationic) and binds to negatively charged (basophilic) substances, such as nucleic acids.
• Acid stain (e.g. eosin) contains negative charges (anionic) and binds to positively charged (acidophilic) substances, such as proteins.

Most of the slides in your collection, and most of those shown in Junqueira, are stained with H&E. This is by far the most routine stain used in hospital pathology labs and will be the same stain used for the tissues you will see next year in pathology.

Other commonly used stains bind preferentially to specific cellular or tissue constituents.